RUSSIA-CHECHNYA: Moscow Prepares to Install Its Own Administration

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

MOSCOW, Dec 26 1994 (IPS) - Russian President Boris Yeltsin Monday indicated a likely conclusion to Russian military intervention in the breakaway republic of Chechnya as moves were initiated to install a new administration backed by Moscow.

At a meeting of Russia’s National Security Council, Yeltsin said that the first stage of the operation to end Chechen separatism was nearly over and a second stage is about to begin.

However in mounting signs of top-level dissent within the Russian army, the ‘Echo Moskovy’ (Echo of Moscow) radio station reported that three deputy defence ministers were due to be dismissed.

The radio station identified Gen. Boris Gromov — an immensely popular figure in the army who led the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan — as well as Gen. Giorgy Kondratiev and Gen. Boris Mironov as slated for the axe in the wake of reports hinting at opposition to the use of force against civilians in Chechnya.

Yeltsin is expected to unveil a peace plan for Chechnya during a televised address due on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Russian government Monday announced the formation of a “government of national rebirth” headed by a former Soviet Minister Salambek Hajiev.

Moscow has evidently decided to dump Umar Avturkhanov, its earlier choice for replacing the defiant Chechen president Jokhar Dudayev, and opted for Hajiev, who in 1991 was Soviet minister for chemical and oil-processing industries.

According to a government statement reported by the Itar-Tass news agency, “Hajiev’s political position is that Chechnya is a full and equal member of the Russian federation.”

Dudayev declared Chechen independence in 1991 but is today facing the largest armed operation conducted by Moscow since the 1979 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Chechnya stands at the crossroads of the northern Caucasus with vital power, energy and transport corridors traversing its territories.

Reports indicate that the Russian military advance into Chechnya which began on Dec. 11 may be on verge of an assault on Dudayev’s presidential palace in the Chechen capital of Grozny.

More than 1,000 Chechen rebels have been reported killed in the fighting, although Moscow says these reports are exaggerated.

Nikolai Yegorov, the Russian deputy prime minister in charge of the Chechen operation, Monday said that if Grozny was not taken soon it would effect the Russian political situation and ethnic relations.